THFC and TELUS promote hearing protection use

Toronto, May 22, 2013 – On the morning of Wednesday, May 22, staff and volunteers of TELUS and The Hearing Foundation of Canada (THFC) handed out hundreds of earplugs to commuters and pedestrians at 25 York Street in Toronto in an effort to raise awareness about noise-induced hearing loss and to urge people to protect one of their most valuable resources – their sense of hearing!

As volunteers handed out earplugs, they encouraged people to “practice safe listening”. One in five teenagers now have some degree of hearing loss, which is attributable, in part, to noise damage. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is permanent damage caused by overexposure to loud sounds, and it generally builds up over time. By the time a person realizes that they have hearing loss, it’s too late. Once the damage has been done, it can’t be fixed. The good news is that NIHL can be prevented through simple shifts in listening behaviour such as wearing hearing protection, like earplugs, in noisy environments, turning down the volume, and limiting exposure to loud noise. The first step however, is to create awareness among the general population.

“We are grateful to TELUS, our national Sound Sense patron, for their belief and visionary support in the fight against preventative hearing loss,” said Dino Sophocleous, President of The Hearing Foundation of Canada. For more information on Sound Sense program or the other programs of the Hearing Foundation of Canada, please visit www.hearingfoundation.ca and www.soundsense.ca.